Noble gas molecules discovered in space

Originally posted by woodypusher
http://www.redorbit.com/news/space/1113027588/noble-gas-molecules-crab-nebula-121313/

Stories like this tend to puzzle me.

Noble gases don't like forming molecules because they have complete outer
electron shells. And are thus already in their lowest energy state.

However the environment around a supernova where atoms get ionised is
exactly the kind of place I would expect to find Noble gases forming molecules.
Because once it's ionised it will form ionic bonds with other elements trying to
find a lower energy state, just like any other chemical would.

Originally posted by Soothfast
Xenon is my favorite element name.

Wolfram!